Erzgebirge Aue - Greuther Fürth

Six-pointer at the wrong end of the table

TEAM NEWS

Aue have no new injury concerns. The only two players not at their disposal due to injury are Nicolai Rapp and Soren Bertram. Furthermore, they are without the suspended Dominik Wydra who saw his fifth yellow card last round.

Greuther Furth won’t have Mathis Bolly and Nik Omladic at their disposal.

Aue

Suspended: Dominik Wydra

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Nicolai Rapp (foot), Soren Bertram (thigh)

Greuther Furth

Suspended: None

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Mathis Bolly (muscle), Nik Omladic (foot)

MATCH PREVIEW

MAIN PREDICTION: HOME WIN

Hannes Drew’s Aue have responded well following their disastrous January. Since losing three in a row at the beginning of the year, the Viola have got back on track in the 2. Bundesliga, winning one and drawing four. Despite this unbeaten run, Aue are still in 16^th spot, one point from safety. Aue are strong on their own patch where they have secured 19 of their 30 points, and they will back themselves to seal all three points in this important match on Monday. They drew 0-0 at Berlin to Union last weekend.

Greuther Furth have been like a machine in recent months, winning four and drawing four whilst losing just once of their previous nine 2. Bundesliga matches. They have fired themselves out of the drop zone with those results. Last Saturday, goals from Julian Green and Mario Maloca gave them an important 2-1 home win over rock-bottom Kaiserslautern. The Shamrocks sit four points and two positions above Aue in the table, but they still have the worst away record in the league, with seven points from 13 games.

This truly is a six-pointer at the wrong end of the table, which neither side can afford to lose. However, I feel that home advantage could be the decisive factor here, so I’m siding with an Aue win against weak travellers Furth.

SECOND PREDICTION: CORRECT SCORE – 1-0

Three of Aue’s last five home league wins have all been narrow 1-0 victories. One goal could be enough to nick this clash and I’m siding with just a solitary goal to be notched by the hosts here.

HEAD TO HEAD

Goals by Khaled Narey and Daniel Steininger sealed a 2-1 win for Greuther Furth over Aue when they squared off at Sportpark Ronhof back in October. None of the last seven meetings have been won by the away side.